This hand-sketched ad for Red Square, the artsy, “luxury rental” apartment building on Houston Street between Avenues A and B, comes from a 1990 issue of Interview.
Anyone who has seen the building, which towers 13 stories over a low-rise stretch of Houston, will recognize the big block “Askew” clock on top, with its out-of-sequence numbers.
The other unusual feature on the building’s roof—the statue of Russian dictator Vladimir Lenin, his hand raised in victory—wasn’t added until 1994.
So why is a statue of the leader of the Russian Revolution on a Manhattan apartment building?
It’s a nod to the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union back in 1989, the year the building—appropriately named Red Square—was built, reports this New York Times article.
“The 18-foot Lenin statue was originally a state-commissioned work by Yuri Gerasimov, but the Soviet Union’s implosion prevented the statue from going on public display. It was found by an associate of [a building co-owner] in the backyard of a dacha outside Moscow.”
And it’s no accident that the statue of Lenin is positioned so it’s facing the Financial District.
“Mr. Shaoul noted that Lenin faces Wall Street, capitalism’s emblem, and the Lower East Side, ‘the home of the socialist movement,”’ added the Times.
Tags: East Village gentrification, East Village in the 1980s, Interview magazine ads, Lenin statue building roof, Lower East Side gentrification, Red Square apartment building, Red Square Houston Street, statue of Lenin Red Square
Ephemeral New York 
May 30, 2013 at 5:40 pm |
[…] A little Red Square-Lenin history (Ephemeral New York) […]
May 30, 2013 at 8:56 pm |
I am guessing that the Shaoul they mention in this article is slumlord Benjamin Shaoul’s father, who was also once in real estate. Maybe one day Lenin will fall on Ben when he is walking down Houston and we will be free of his tyranny!
The New York Times article also mentions the Essex Street trolley terminal, which might make a good blog post for Ephemeral.
November 4, 2013 at 9:53 pm |
[…] that was a gas station for 25 years, were designed by Michael Rosen and the statue of Lenin, which points toward Wall Street, was added later following the fall of the Soviet Union when it was discovered in Moscow. The […]
July 12, 2015 at 8:34 pm |
Haha I love how they refer to Lenin as a “dictator.” He was anything but. However, I understand it’s important for Americans to believe that communism is inherently “evil,” and anything associated with it is bad. Great way to impeded social progress. The corporate arm of the United States, and Senator McCarthy, are smiling down on you from heaven.
September 20, 2016 at 1:57 pm |
[…] New York noted that the 18-foot-tall statue was originally commissioned by the U.S.S.R., but the socialist […]